restrm pg 1 10-17-24
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- Category: Current Issue
The public
restroom
dilemma
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — Break-ins at the public restrooms in the commuter lot are challenging town officials to find new ways to keep the restrooms in good order.
Town Administrator Elaine Sistare said in the last two or three years, the break-ins and damage to the restrooms have escalated. Each effort at protecting the restrooms is thwarted and officials are considering shutting them down all together from December through March.
Limiting the hours it’s unlocked hasn’t seemed to help. They may try cameras and alarms but those might be knocked out, too.
The town could close them town right after the Dazzle Light Parade and perhaps reopen them for Fire and Ice. Port-a-Johns can be added for events and on the River Trail.
The last bit of damage was a broken urinal. She said people are breaking in the outside door. The town replaced the door with an even thicker one with a lock and that was broken, too.
“We’ve made it as close to indestructible as can be, but with effort you can damage anything,” she said.
“Remnants” found inside the restrooms indicate that the restrooms are not being used as restrooms. They’ve found things like drug paraphernalia in some of the small storage areas inside. In the colder months, the electric bill skyrockets, according to Mayor Barney Seney.
Asked why the upswing in the past two to three years, Sistare said she believes more transients have made Putnam their home.
The continual maintenance is “frustrating,” she said.
The town continues to mull solutions. One may be, when work on the commuter lot begins in the spring, having underground water shutoffs to the rest room building installed.
She said other communities talked with Putnam about the public restroom idea. She said “about half of them say ‘don’t do it’.”
caption, page 2:
The restrooms at the Kennedy Drive commuter lot in Putnam. Linda Lemmon photo.
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